Research Brief
What Is the Impact of the New York City Community Schools Initiative?
Jan 28, 2020
With the launch of the New York City Community Schools Initiative (NYC-CS) in 2014, New York City has increased its focus on a holistic strategy of education reform to address the social consequences of poverty as a means to improving student outcomes. In this study, the authors assessed the impact of the NYC-CS through the 2017--2018 school year by assessing the effects along seven outcome domains of student- and school-level characteristics.
An Assessment of the Impact of the New York City Community Schools Initiative
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With the launch of the New York City Community Schools Initiative (NYC-CS) in 2014, the New York City Department of Education (NYCDOE) has increased its focus on the implementation of a holistic strategy of education reform to address the social consequences of poverty as a means to improving student outcomes. NYC-CS is a strategy to organize resources in schools and share leadership among stakeholders so that academics, health and wellness, youth development, and family engagement are integrated into the fabric of each school. New York City is implementing this strategy at a scale unmatched nationally.
In this study, the authors assessed the impact of the NYC-CS through the 2017–2018 school year. The authors assessed the effects along seven outcome domains and explored the extent to which there is heterogeneity in programmatic impact based on student- and school-level characteristics. The authors leveraged innovative quasi-experimental methodology to determine whether students in the community schools are performing better than they would be had their schools not been designated as Community Schools.
The findings of this report will contribute to the emerging evidence base on the efficacy of the community school strategy and will be useful for other school district– and state-level policymakers interested in developing or refining similar interventions that support students' and communities' academic, social, and emotional well-being.
Chapter One
Introduction
Chapter Two
Community Schools in New York City
Chapter Three
Data and Methods
Chapter Four
Results
Chapter Five
Discussion
Appendix A
Review Memo
Appendix B
Core Capacity Score Item Summary and Distributions
Appendix C
Data Sources for Mental Health Implementation Profiles
Appendix D
Mental Health Implementation Profile Estimation Results
The research described in this report was prepared for the New York City Mayor's Office for Economic Opportunity (NYC Opportunity) and conducted by RAND Education and Labor.
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